Storm
by Emori Loul
Summary: Laura meets a hansome boy one rainy day at the park, but what comes out of it is a bit more that she ever wanted...


Storm

Falling water pooled into silver mirrors on the ground, circular ripples shivering away from raindrops as they struck the glassy surface.

The ripples broke in waves over an orange pair of sandals worn by a solitary girl.

What the girl was doing along Magnolia Square on such a rainy day, no one could remember. Nor could the shopkeepers on the streets remember her name, though they had seen her often enough. But she sat quietly, sitting on a park bench just off the sidewalk, facing the green. Occasionally, they remembered, she would throw bread crumbs into a small pond for the ducks.

But she was not alone in the green.

Another person; a boy with messy brown hair about her age, sat on another bench on the other side of the duck pond.

They didn't say anything at first. The atmosphere was quiet, the sort of stuffy, moody day that made people sleep in. The quiet patter of raindrops hitting leaves was the only sound.

Even the world seemed to be holding its breath, waiting.

She could feel his gaze trying to catch hers. She purposefully avoided it, staring instead at the ducks in the pond.

The boy, it seemed, wouldn't have it. He got up, and for a hopeful second she thought he was leaving. But no, he sat down next to her.

She knew him, though he did not know her. He was the one they all talked about, the boy whom every girlfriend of his had disappeared.

There had been rumors of foul play, but the town of Marybell knew Danny Zickerby. He was an honest kid, maybe with some faults, but easy enough to get along with.

"What's your name?" he asked.

The gil said nothing for a time. She was worried about Tyler and Rachel, and what was going on at her school. Usually she was the tough-talking rebel girl, and a mere glance from her could send freshmen into a panic attack. But something was wrong, something was missing something. She felt hallow, and as void of life as the empty wet streets were now.

"What's yours?" she finally spoke up. She already knew his name, of course, but he might feel offended that a complete stranger knew him because of rumors.

The boy grinned impishly. "I asked you first."

She slugged him on the arm. Not hard, but enough for him to know that she wasn't in the mood.

"Okay, okay!" Danny laughed. It almost made her smile. "I suppose you know who I am anyway, with all the rumors people tell." He grinned. "I'm Danny."

"I know," she said, "Lunette is totally crazy for your brother." She held out her hand to shake his in a 'strictly professional' way. "Laura Belmore."

He took it, and she flipped him.

He laughed nervously as he lay on his back, rubbing his neck with his right hand. He sat up.

"Ow…"

"Never underestimate me."

He gave her a dry look. "Do you _always_ start a conversation by flipping people?"

"Well, I had to stop for the most part after Zack broke his wrist with that." Laura explained very seriously. Then she broke out laughing hysterically when she saw the half-scared, half-incredulous look on his face.

"Oh, ha-ha. _Very_ funny. I suppose that encourages a _very_ active social life." He picked himself up and his back cracked loudly.

"Ow…" he said again.

Laura almost burst out laughing for the second time when she saw his back, which was covered with mud from the rain.

She sobered up immediately when he started to leave.

"Ah!" she cried when she noticed him walking away. "Stop!"

The boy stopped.

"Would you go to the dance with me?" Laura said, her blunt personality showing through. "Everyone else already has a date." _'Except for Tyler,'_ she added in her head. _'But everyone knows he likes Rachel best.'_ She reminded herself that she needed to devise a plan to get them together later.

"The dance?" he asked, stunned.

The Homecoming Dance may not have been formal, but it was a _huge_ social event, and she was looking forward to hanging out with Lunette, Rachel, Lina, and especially Charlotte, laughing at Ashley Berbandi in front or behind her back.

Danny looked startled for a moment, then broke into a cute, happy smile.

"Sure."

That was the start of massive rumors around school. Everyone knew about Danny Zikerby and his disappearing girlfriends. And now that Laura was going with him, she didn't know which was more unnerving: the people who came up to her and said they were absolutely sure Danny was not guilty of _any_ foul play, or the people who came up to her and said they would be bringing their cell phones to the dance with 911 on speed dial.

The date of the dance was approaching fast, and Laura had already escaped two attempts by Charlotte and Lina to drag her to the mall and force her to get a make-over. She was becoming more paranoid by the minute. She never walked into a room without scouting it with her eyes, checking for threats, escapes, and then occupants in that order, like a seasoned police officer.

She was walking home in the ever-falling rain one day, when she spotted a very young girl leaning on the corner of a wall. Laura blinked repeatedly, but the girl was still there.

The girl looked so ghostly she couldn't have been real. White porcelain skin with dark black hair that turned scarlet at the tips, and glass-like, unblinking blood-red eyes. Only around three feet tall, she looked impossibly like a china doll. A really, really creepy china doll. She was singing something to herself, but it was gradually getting louder, until Laura could make out something…

"Laura's a goner…"

She blinked again, and massaged her ears.

"Laura's a goner…"

She realized the song she was hearing went disturbingly to the tune of '_Yes Jesus Loves Me.'_

"Will she live or will she die?

Danny, Danny, he decides."

The girl still did not move. Neither did Laura. The red eyes showed the only trace of movement, slipping from looking forward to the corner of her eye, watching Laura silently and intently. Then, she turned and vanished behind the other side of the wall.

Laura dashed forward, somehow afraid of and needing to see the girl all at the some time. She was only a few feet away from the corner when she first saw the girl, and she had gotten closer while the girl sang, but when Laura turned the corner, she was gone.

The dance was rather lively. The school hallways had glass chandeliers hanging up and down the corridor, massive velvet curtains hiding classroom doors, and a thousand crystal disco balls hung from the ceiling. But these spectacular decorations were no surprise to the people dancing. This was, after all, the richest private school in the country. Why _would_ they be surprised?

They _were_ surprised, however, by Laura.

She stepped out of a limousine radiating more light, it seemed, than all the crystal disco balls. Diamonds hung from her ears, her hair flowing down passed her shoulders accompanied by hundreds of tiny pearls, all stringed together. As the theme of the dance was "Living Fairytales," she looked like she had stepped directly out of Cinderella, complete with the clear, sparkling high-heels (but Ashley, the only one criticizing the outfit, pointed out that there was no way they were glass).

Lina and Charlotte looked pleased, and were about to rub in the fact that their handiwork (which Laura had been reluctant to wear) had been so well received, when lo and behold, Prince Charming appeared.

"He looks too much like the Disney version." Lina whispered to Charlotte. And she was right, in a way. White pants, shirt that looked like a 1860 army general's only red and white, and the boy even put washout black hair dye in his hair. He couldn't find Laura, as she was being surrounded by men, so he began to walk towards Lina and Charlotte.

Not even waiting for him to cross the room, Charlotte pointed to the mob near the punch bowl.

Parting his way through the crowd, he quickly found Laura.

She raised a critical eyebrow at his attire. "Who're you supposed to be, Colonel Mustard?" _'In the Lounge, with the Rope,'_ she couldn't help adding in her head.

They got to talking, and eventually dancing, and just as the clock struck midnight (you were expecting some other time?) someone burst through the front doors, sending them flying into the walls their hinges were attached to with a _BOOM!_

Her blonde hair was messy and straggly, and she had everyday clothes on, if you could call a muddy shirt and jeans everyday clothing. She looked like she had just escaped the Swamp Monster from the Black Lagoon. One of the girls near the door when the stranger burst in shrieked out "IT'S THE CRYPT KEEPER!" which was funny for about a second and then turned somehow not as everyone got a look at the girl.

She didn't say anything, just stood in the doorway, hands outstretched, holding open the thick double doors, eyes searching around the room.

They landed on Danny and Laura, who by then had stopped dancing and had joined in staring at the muddy newcomer.

Tears began to form in the girl's eyes and run down her cheeks, carrying away the mud that coated her face. She removed her dirty hands from the double doors, running back down the hallway.

Then vanished out the doors and into the night.

The dance never really got back to normal. People continued to talk of the girl, until finally someone made a connection and spoke up above the crowd.

"Wasn't that Selena Walker?"

A few people looked alarmed, and the cheerleaders, who had been Selena's 'friend' when she had been in the school, and all of whom loved to gossip, said, "Yes! That _was_ Selena! No wonder she looked so familiar. Though she's done something awful to her hair."

One of the chess club members near her rolled his eyes. "Wow, you _are_ stupid. But I won't pick on you for your ignorance seeing as you haven't exactly been present the past six months," here, the boy rapped on his head with his knuckles, "in _here_, if you get my drift."

Apparently the girl didn't, so the boy rolled his head and spoke on.

"Selena Walker _disappeared_ six months ago. Most of us were absolutely sure she was dead, killed by her boyfriend as a matter of fac—" He caught Danny's hurt look and fell silent.

For a few moments, no one said anything, then, "We've got to call the police! We need to tell them we saw her!"

There was a murmur of agreement amongst the people at the dance, so the chess nerd went to make the call.

Three days later, Laura stood in front of a large Victorian mansion. Strictly speaking, it went without saying that it was a mansion, because Marybell was just that sort of community. But the house was dark, with no lights on, which was odd because it was raining even harder than it was the day that Laura and Danny had met and some of the windows were quite small and would never be able to provide enough light with the cloud cover like that.

There wasn't a car there in the driveway, but Danny's dad often left for many reasons, and the family had other cars that were parked in their own garage out back, though it wasn't nearly as close as the drive way.

Maybe no one was home? But she wanted to try anyways, she wanted to know about that girl. Danny's Ex-Girlfriend. Or, technically, his _first_ girlfriend, seeing as she had gone missing and he never really broke up with her.

She walked up the front steps and grabbed the knocker with her right hand, but after three good jolts to the door with it, no one answered. Not even the groaning of timbers that would give away movement inside.

She tried the doorbell, with the same results. In frustration, she grabbed the doorknob and jerked it.

The door opened.

Inside, the hallway was dark and full of shadows. She was correct in her first guess: there were no lights on inside.

A pungent smell met her nostrils, and she had to fight down the sudden urge to vomit. What was going on? Was the house evacuated because of some toxic gas?

'_No,'_ she told herself, _'Get a grip. You only seem to think the about the worst things when you don't know what's going on. Besides, a gas leak smells like eggs.'_

She pressed on.

The first door she came to while walking down that hallway was a dining room, a fine, long room with an impressive dark-red stain on the wooden table. Many china cabinets, each with what looked like antiques inside them, lined the maroon walls. However, many plates, cups, and dishes lay broken across the floor, silverware scattered nearby, chairs were overturned, and the candles in the candelabra were all broken at various points, one or two still hanging down from their sticks and burning. She closed the door.

Uneasy feeling growing, she decided not to open any more doors, but to peer inside the ones that were open. This made her job easier, as the only door open besides the one on her left that led to a staircase spiraling upwards was the door at the very end of the hallway, some twenty yards away.

She stood up proud and unafraid, because though she truly was, Laura never showed anyone, she marched down the hallway quickly so as not to lose her nerve.

The smell was strongest in there.

The room was a nursery, full of baby plush toys and cartoon characters like Winnie the Pooh and Madeline, and many others she had not thought back about for a very long time. It must've been Danny's or his brother's when they were little. Maybe it had been both of theirs at one point.

There was a tiny crib in the corner, cute and white with little blue lace trimmings, the kind that rocked back and forward. Inside it was a figure.

But it was _not_ a baby.

Unable to fully rap her mind around what she was seeing or what it meant, her first thought was, _'So that's where the smell's coming from.'_

The figure of Selena Walker was stuffed into the crib like someone trying to stuff a suitcase. She was curled up in the fetal position, and there would usually be nothing wrong with that other than she was probably uncomfortable except for the rather obvious fact that she was dead, and had been dead for quite a long time.

Strangled, obviously, from the marks around her neck. Spindly bruise marks encircled her neck, distorted in its shape and a little flatter than that of a living person's. Tiny half-moon wounds were made at the end of every bruise line, the blood smeared and dried, which were probably from the fingernails.

Something hit the ground.

She whipped around in time to see Danny standing in the doorway, and for a brief moment she wondered how long he had been standing there, watching her. His face betrayed no emotion. He was blank.

Something slammed in the distance of the house.

"SON!" cried a deep, slurred male voice, "YOU-_HIC_-YOU_-HICHIC_-LITTLE SHIT!"

Laura ran to the door, bowling Danny over, to look over and see a man. He clearly had not shaven in a long time, and he had massive begs under his eyebrows. His face was flushed, and he could barely walk.

"YOU!" He roared, seeing Danny. "GET RID OF THAT SMELL! IT'S YOUR FAULT! GET RID OF IT, OR I'LL GET RID OF YOU!"

Laura had never seen such an unpleasant man in her life. So _he_ was the one who made them all disappear, all those girls around Danny.

Danny made a sound halfway between a yelp and the sobbing of a small child, then dashed into the nursery, pulling Laura after him. He quickly locked the doors.

"He's gone nuts!" he cried. He put his back against the door, trying to stop his father from breaking it down.

Something was off with this picture.

Laura, still in shock, she supposed, from seeing the dead Selena, walked over to the crib with the body, then looked back at Danny.

Her eyes went from the half-moon cuts on the girl's throat to Danny's hands, which upon them had fingernails, each of which with a dark brown-ish red color dried beneath them.

She froze.

"Why?"

He looked at her, saw her and knew something with his eyes. Then suddenly something changed.

She didn't know what it was. It could have been something physical, like the fact that he had his eyes open so wide she could see well passed the edges of his irises on all sides, or that he now had a gaunt, hallow feeling to him. But most likely it was emotional.

"She told me to tell." He said quietly. His voice now sounded like a small child's, scared and unsure. "She said that Daddy shouldn't do things like that, but she didn't understand. So I showed her what Daddy did to me. But unlike me, she hasn't got up since." He looked at Laura. "I even put her in here, where Daddy used to keep me when he got mad. Why isn't she up yet?"

Laura didn't say anything. Then, with one swift kick she had learned from all her time in karate, she broke the window, and ran.

Danny found her later, sitting by herself on a log in the woods.

"Are you angry with me?" He still had that babyish sort of voice.

She said nothing.

"Laura?"

She looked up at him.

On his arms were cuts and bruises bleeding openly, probably made by the boy's father.

"Laura?"

"You need to tell someone. Ever thought that what Selena was saying might actually be good advice?" She said finally. Then she added in an undertone: "Wow, I can't believe I just agreed with a cheerleader…"

"But… but…" He looked like a pleading, helpless child, and then his face hardened.

"You… you don't understand either!"

For the second time, Laura ran. All the way to the police station.

The Zikerby Mansion was raided the next day, and the man of the house himself was arrested for charges of child abuse. Danny was taken to a psychiatric ward, and even months later seemed to show no sign of progress. No one ever knew who exactly killed Selena Walker, for the father was in a drunken stupor half the time and couldn't remember much and the son was insane.

Laura was constantly in the presence of friends, all of whom knew better than to ask her to tell them in detail what happened, but knew her well enough to be there to support her when times got tough.

And so, as fate would have it, Laura Belmore yet again sat by the duck pond in the silvery rain, just as it had begun weeks ago. But this time, there was no one staring at her from across the duck pond. To greet her to the park.

Put, just as before, there was someone there.

And this, too, was someone she was familiar with. Though not in the same way as she had been with Danny.

It was the Doll Girl. She was back.

Her red eyes looked faintly surprised to see Laura sitting there, but her face, once again, betrayed no emotion. And once again, Laura could hear her hum the feint sound of 'Yes, Jesus Loves me.'

The Doll Girl broke into words, but the verse was different from last time.

"Will she live or will she lose?

Laura, answer, who will choose?"

It was almost like the girl in front of her was trying to tell her something. Laura almost got it though, she _thought_ what she was about to say was right.

"I will."

…

Falling water pooled into silver mirrors on the ground, circular ripples shivering away from raindrops as they struck the glassy surface.

The ripples broke in waves over an orange pair of sandals worn by a solitary girl…

La Fin


End file.
